Belgium grants visa to banned ex-minister

Belgium grants visa to banned ex-minister

• Bush extends sanctions on Zimbabwe

• EU renews Zimbabwe sanctions

• Mugabe barred from French summit

• US says Zimbabwe under sanctions

• Protest as Majongwe denied UK visa

• Mumbengegwi beats Canada travel ban

• Ncube challenges passport seizure

• Zim seizes opposition spokesman's passport

• Zimbabwe seizes journalist's passport

• Mugabe targets 15 critics for travel ban

• Zim denies plot to curtail critics' travel

• Sanctions not in Zimbabwe's interests

• Tawanda Hondora: Zim sanctions, are they political or economic

• Khanyisela Moyo: US sanctions futile

• Dr Alex T Magaisa: On sanctions, Mugabe and the economy

• Nobuhle Nyathi: It's Zanu PF not sanctions, stupid!

• Tawanda Hondora: Sanctions undermine economy

By Ingrid Melander

BELGIUM mistakenly granted a Zimbabwean former minister a visa even though he was on an EU sanctions list and does not know whether he has entered its territory or another EU state, the foreign ministry said.

Edward Chindori-Chininga, a former minister of mines and mining development, is on a list of more than 100 Zimbabwean officials, including President Robert Mugabe, banned from entering the European Union because of human rights violations.

"The visa has been granted, yes, because the name did not correspond to that on the list," a Belgian foreign ministry spokesman said. Chindori-Chininga had applied for the visa using only one of his two family names, the spokesman said.

"Had we had the full name we would have spotted him," the spokesman said, adding that Chindori-Chininga would then not have been granted a visa.

The Foreign Ministry could not say whether the ex-minister, a lawmaker and member of the central committee of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party, was in Belgium or in any of the 13 EU states plus Norway and Iceland, which are part of Europe's border-free "Schengen" area.

"It's a Schengen visa, so maybe he entered through another country other than Belgium," the spokesman said. "There are no direct flights to Belgium, so all possibilities exist."

The 27-nation EU extended its sanctions on Zimbabwe for a year last month. They include an arms embargo, travel bans and asset freezes on Mugabe and other top officials.

The ban can be lifted to allow officials to attend international meetings, but the Zimbabwean embassy said Chindori-Chininga was not one of three Zimbabweans due to attend a meeting of the EU-ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific) parliamentary assembly in Brussels this week.

Glenys Kinnock, co-chair of the EU-ACP assembly, said she would push for Zanu PF officials to be banned from the meetings.

Mugabe has been criticised for the extreme violence used in his latest crackdown on the opposition, which he says is bankrolled by Western countries. - Reuters

JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com